Northern Lights (novel)
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| Northern Lights | |
 First edition cover |
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| Author | Philip Pullman |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Philip Pullman and David Scutt |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | His Dark Materials |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy, Steampunk |
| Publisher | Scholastic Point |
| Publication date | 1995 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 399 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-590-66054-3 |
| Preceded by | Once Upon a Time in the North |
| Followed by | The Subtle Knife |
Northern Lights, known in English-speaking North America as The Golden Compass and published in 1995, is the first novel in the His Dark Materials trilogy by British novelist Philip Pullman.
For the movie,
Contents |
[edit] Title
For some time during the pre-publication process, the series of novels was known as The Golden Compasses. The word Compasses referred to a pair of compasses—the circle-drawing instrument—rather than a navigational compass. Pullman then settled on Northern Lights as the title for the first book, and continued to refer to the trilogy as The Golden Compasses.[1]
In the United States, in their discussions over the publication of the first book, the publishers Alfred A. Knopf had been calling it The Golden Compass (omitting the plural), which they mistakenly believed referred to Lyra's alethiometer, because the device superficially resembles a navigational compass. Meanwhile, in the UK, Pullman had replaced The Golden Compasses with His Dark Materials (a title that Pullman had taken from a line in Paradise Lost) as the title of the trilogy. According to Pullman, the publishers had become so attached to The Golden Compass that they insisted on publishing the U.S. edition of the first book under that title, rather than Northern Lights with the title used in the UK and Australia.[1]
[edit] Plot summary
The story begins when Lyra Belacqua— a supposedly orphaned, twelve-year-old girl residing at Jordan College, Oxford—secretly enters and hides in the 'Retiring Room' in the college, despite resistance from her dæmon, Pantalaimon — an animal-formed, shape-shifting manifestation of her soul. Inside the room, they see the Master of the college attempt to assassinate the visiting Lord Asriel, Lyra's uncle, by poisoning his wine. Lord Asriel later enters after the Master of the college has left and discovers Lyra hiding there. She immediately informs him that his wine has been poisoned. Instead of punishing her for being where she should not be, he instead allows her to stay hidden under the condition that she spy on the other attendees of his upcoming meeting. When the meeting commences, Lord Asriel shows the resident scholars a picture of mysterious elementary particles called Dust. Shortly afterwards, Lord Asriel travels to the Arctic North, and Lyra continues with her life.
When “the Gobblers,” who are the subject of a recent urban legend, kidnap her friend Roger, Lyra vows to rescue him and finds her chance when a visiting woman of great importance, Mrs. Marisa Coulter, offers to take Lyra away from Jordan College to become her apprentice. Lyra assents, but before she leaves she is entrusted with a priceless object by the Master of the College (with the condition that she keep it absolutely secret): an alethiometer. Resembling a golden, many-handed pocket-watch, it is a device able to reveal the answer to any question asked by the user. Although initially unable to read or understand its complex meanings, Lyra takes it with her to Mrs. Coulter's flat. Soon after Lyra becomes suspicious of Mrs. Coulter's motives when her dæmon (a golden monkey named Ozymandias) searches Lyra's room for the alethiometer.
At the cocktail party hosted by Mrs. Coulter, Lyra discovers that Mrs. Coulter is the head of an organization known as the "General Oblation Board" and that this board is, in fact, the "Gobblers" who have been kidnapping children. The horror of this discovery causes Lyra to take advantage of the hubbub of the party to flee Mrs. Coulter's flat.
She is pursued by "Gobblers" and rescued by the Gyptians, a group of nomadic, canal-boat-dwelling people, who afterwards reveal that Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are none other than Lyra's father and mother. She also learns that many children like Roger have been disappearing from among the Gyptians, and that the Gyptians are planning an expedition to the north to rescue the missing children. During her time with the Gyptians, Lyra intuitively begins to learn how to operate the alethiometer.
Lyra joins the expedition to the North, and on the journey discovers that the children kidnapped by “the Gobblers” are having their dæmons cut away from them, by way of experiment. From experience, she has learned that "cutting" a dæmon away is very painful, physically and emotionally, and may be fatal to the child. Shortly after this revelation, the group is attacked, and Lyra is taken to the experimentation facility in Bolvangar.
Inside it, she locates Roger and devises a plan of escape. Inside, she is caught spying and narrowly escapes the intercision process herself, only being rescued, unfortunately, by Mrs. Coulter, who tries to take the alethiometer from her. Narrowly escaping her clutches once again, Lyra leads the other children out of the facility and is rescued by Lee Scoresby in his hydrogen balloon. With them go Roger and an armoured bear called Iorek Byrnison. Iorek is an exiled prince of the armoured bears, of whose culture he is a perfect example.
Now that Lyra has found Roger, she wishes to deliver the alethiometer to Lord Asriel, who has been imprisoned at Svalbard, the fortress of the armoured bears, because the church opposes his experiments on Dust. On their way to Svalbard, the bat-like cliff-ghasts attack the balloon; Lyra is thrown out, but lands safely. The armoured bears then capture her. She manages to trick the usurping bear-king, Iofur Raknison, into allowing Iorek Byrnison to fight to regain his throne. Thereafter she travels to Lord Asriel’s cabin, accompanied by both Iorek and Roger.
Despite being imprisoned, Lord Asriel is so influential that he has managed to accumulate the necessary equipment to continue his experiments on Dust. After explaining the nature of Dust, an emanation from another world, and the existence of parallel universes to Lyra, he departs, taking Roger and a great deal of scientific equipment. Lyra pursues them, but Roger is killed when he is separated from his dæmon by Lord Asriel. This act releases an enormous amount of energy, which, due to Lord Asriel’s equipment, tears a hole through the sky into a parallel world. Lord Asriel walks through into the new world. Lyra decides to follow him, on the advice of Pantalaimon. This concludes the first book, with the trilogy continuing in the next book, The Subtle Knife.
[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
A feature film adaptation of the novel, titled The Golden Compass, produced by New Line Cinema with a budget of $200 million, was released December 5, 2007. The novel was adapted by Chris Weitz, who directed the film. The film stars Dakota Blue Richards, in her film debut, as Lyra. Nicole Kidman, Daniel Craig, Eva Green, Ian McKellen, Sam Elliott and Christopher Lee also star. Some organizations have condemned the movie adaptation as well as the trilogy for denigrating the Church and religion,[2][3] while others have argued that Pullman's works should be included in religious education courses.[4]
[edit] Video game adaptation
A video game of the movie adaptation of the book, titled The Golden Compass, published by Sega and developed by Shiny Entertainment, was released December 4, 2007. Players assume the role of Lyra as she travels through the frozen wastes of the North in an attempt to rescue her friend kidnapped by a mysterious organization known as the Gobblers. Travelling with her are an armoured polar bear and her dæmon Pantalaimon (Pan). Together, they must use a truth-telling alethiometer and other items to explore the land and fight their way through confrontations in order to help Lyra's friend. The Golden Compass features a mix of fighting and puzzle solving with three characters. [5]
[edit] See also
- 1995 in literature
- His Dark Materials
- Steampunk
- Controversy about religious perspective of Pullman's trilogy
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b Frequently Asked Questions. BridgeToTheStars.net. Retrieved on 2007-08-20.
- ^ Catholic League: For Religious and Civil Rights
- ^ La Crosse Tribune - 7.0 : Bishop Listecki: ‘Golden Compass’ points to evil
- ^ Petre, Jonathan. "Williams backs Pullman", Daily Telegraph, 2004-03-10. Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
- ^ The Golden Compass Game. ign.com. Retrieved on 2007-06-02.
[edit] References
- Lenz, Millicent (2005). His Dark Materials Illuminated: Critical Essays on Phillip Pullman's Trilogy. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3207-2.
[edit] External links
- The Golden Compass Reviewed at The Open Critic
- HisDarkMaterials.com Publisher's site
- Philip Pullman reads a manuscript extract (audio)
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